Friday, January 6, 2017

Overcoming Obama

The worst legacy of Obama administration was how he bypassed Congress from January 2011 through January 2017, making new "laws" with his pen and phone.Doing that effectively implemented his progressive agenda after Democrats lost control of Congress in January 2011.Obama moved usa big step closer to a dictatorship, where Congress did not matter.He should have been stopped with an impeachment proceeding for doing that, but Democrats in Congress didn't care about their institution, and Republicans in Congress feared being called racists (but they are always called that by Democrats anyway).I believe in time it will become obvious that Obama was one of the worst Presidents in American history -- he temporarily has an approval rating above 50% only because it has been so many years since the last recession.The big problem created by Obama is that every President aftercan, and probably will, seize the same "pen and phone" power that Obama used to bypass Congress.Both Democrats and Republicans will do this when they don't have 60 votes in the Senate to break filibusters.What Obama did is potentially a nightmare for what is supposed to be a constitutionally limited republic. We already know Democrats on the Supreme Court will find "new" meaning in the Constitution whenever doing so furthers their progressive agenda. We will will soon have a Republican President who will follow Obama's pen and phone precedent.Trump is a man used to getting his way as the CEO of his own company -- how long do you think he will tolerate all the legislation he wants blocked by Democrat Senate filibusters requiring 60 votes to stop.If you think the Democrats in Congress are going to play nice and sing Kumbaya with the Republicans in Congress, then I think you are an incurable, and wrong, optimist.Democrats can block any bill in the Senate with a filibuster requiring 60 votes to end -- they will block every bill that does not satisfy progressives, or moderate liberals, assuming there are any moderate liberals left. And there is no reason to believe all Republicans in Congress will support the many populist (non-conservative) policies Trump campaigned on.In fact, Republicans traditionally oppose several major Trump policies:(1) Trump's high tariffs / trade war proposals,

(2) Trump's $1 trillion infrastructure boondoggle, and

(3) Trump's US / Mexico wall, and forcing Mexico to pay for it (finishing the much cheaper double fence already blocking some of the border should be an acceptable alternative for Republicans whoapproved the fence in 2006, but probably not acceptable to the many Democrats who supported it back then.)Obama 'rewrote' laws, made new "laws", and refused to enforce actual laws previously passed by Congress. Specific examples include:(1) Many arbitrary changes to "ObamaCare",

(2) Giving unlawful protection to illegal immigrants,

(3) Waiving work requirements for welfare,

(4) Changing the 1970 Clean Air Act, and

(5) Redefining navigable waters under the 1972 Clean Water ActThe 1996 Congressional Review Act (CRA) allows regulations to go into effect automatically if Congress does not disapprove them. CRA was used only once to overturn a regulation because it requires passage of a joint resolution of disapproval—which must be signed by the president. (1) The CRA law should be changed so Congress has to approve all expensive regulations, and all regulations that resemble new laws, before they can go into effect(2) Federal courts traditionally defer to government agency interpretations of ambiguous laws, so Congress must stop passing ambiguous 1000+ page laws.

Even 100 pages is too much.Restoring the separation of powers mandated by our Constitution is necessary so the Presidency does not continue morphing into an executive branch dictatorship.Obama is also leaving us with a final flurry of "midnight regulations"(issued between Election Day and Trump's inauguration day.) A year ago Politico claimed Obama had 4,000 regulations planned for his last year, including major regulations on overtime pay.Recent new Obama rules, and re-interpretations of existing rules:(1) Methane on public lands (cost: $2.4 billion),

(2) Anti-coal rules related to streams (cost: $1.2 billion),

(3) Renewable fuel standards (cost: $1.5 billion),

(4) Placed nearly all the Arctic Ocean, and much of the Atlantic Ocean off limits to oil or gas drilling, and

(5) Shut down the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota. Smarmy Obama is trying to swamp the Trump administration with new rules and regulations that he'll have to waste months to undo them.George W. Bush did not undo most of Bill Clinton's midnight regulations, according to a 2005 paper by Jason M. Loring and Liam R. Roth in Wake Forest Law Review.Loring and Roth found 82% of Bill Clinton's midnight regulations were left to stand by George W. Bush.Obama tended to rule like an autocrat and repeatedly abused his Constitutionally limited powers. Every Obama midnight regulation should be cancelled.ObamaCare should be cancelled.-- I am a victim of ObamaCare, and can't wait to start Medicare in late 2018.-- At first ObamaCare tripled my previously affordable insurance premiums, forcing me to micromanage my finances to lower my taxable income, and get large government subsidies.-- This year the insurance premiums for the ObamaCare policy I had in 2016, which was very cheap, went up sixfold for 2017 -- so of course I had to switch to another company!-- In fact, I've had to switch companies four years in a row, each time after choosing a cheap insurance policy ... whose premiums went up a lot the next year ... forcing me out.-- I suppose I shouldn't complain because I am retired andwas able to "manage" my taxable income for a few years to get large subsidies -- as a result, under ObamaCare I have been paying perhaps half of what I would have paid without the law. -- I haven't been to a doctor in over five years, so I can't say if the ObamaCare doctors I selected, and never met, were any good ... but I have no reason to believe that would have been a problem.And finally ... the White House should be fumigated to eliminate all traces of Obama's overwhelming love for Big Government ... which he demonstrated by unilaterally seizing more power for the executive branch of our government.